LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To-date revenues accumulated by the global mobile application market
will pass the $30 billion milestone by the end of this year, according
to new Market Data from ABI Research. The cumulative revenue base
includes the money made from pay-per-downloads, in-app purchases,
subscriptions, and in-app advertisements, and it is nearly double the
amount that had been reached by end-2011.

Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen says, “Consumers’ high interest in apps
has for long time been obvious from download volumes, but it’s 2012 that
will go down in history as the year when the economic side of the
business finally took off. We’re no longer talking only about a
short-term gold rush. Apps have become a major digital industry.”

The catalyst behind the quest of turning apps into money has been Apple,
which not only came up with a compelling OS, but also with well-executed
distribution and billing mechanisms. As the firm that has stood out most
in 2012 Markkanen would however name Google, adding, “Google deserves a
lot of credit for rehabilitating its proposition as an app distributor
in the past year or so. If the old Android Market was a garage sale of
the industry then the new Google Play has begun resembling a respectable
department store. We estimate the Android developers’ share of the
annual app revenues to set around one-third.”

Meanwhile, the main candidates for the third ecosystem, Microsoft and
RIM, have clearly made the monetization aspect a key piece in their
platform strategies. This means that if Windows Phone 8 or BlackBerry 10
– or even both – manage to win the users’ hearts and minds of the
consumer, the threshold for developers to jump on the bandwagon won’t be
high.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of
trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From
offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team
of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and
advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com,
or call +1.516.624.2500.